Monday, July 7, 2008

"Daughter of Destiny" is an autobiography of Benazir Bhutto. It's a very empowering book in a sense that its a real-life tale of a fight for democracy, and basic rights for the people of Pakistan. Benazir writes about her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, how much politics meant to him and how involved he was in bringing a secular government to the countty. She writes about her childhood in Pakistan, her family life, her siblings, her education at Harvard and Oxford, then coming back home to Pakistan after graduating. She describes General Zia-ul-Haq very calmly, but you get the sense of how he had tortured, and murdered her father on the basis of wrong charges. I dont know how can one suffer so much and still stand upright. How much she herself endured, losing her family members one by one. She never gives in, she has the courage and it shows through her experiences. Even in the maddening Solitary Confinement for months, she maintains her sanity. There's a lot to learn and feel in this book, and its all fact, its non-fiction, so you get a taste of what really went on in Pakistan, with its people and with Bhutto family from July 1977 to August 1988. A full decade of military rule, forced on Islamization which was a twisted version of Islamic rules just to rule the people and terrorize them if they wanted to go against the Martial Law.

You cannot put the book down without its having a tremendous effect on you. I hadn't known Benazir's life and her work the day I saw the news of her assassination, I had felt sad but I did not grieve on the news. Now when I've known a woman of that courage, of that nobel nature to give even her life to at least give the people some basic human rights by democracy, of fighting against the bad, I now feel deeply hurt. What bold hopes she must have had to return to Pakistan in December 2007 when she knew how close she would be to death. Her life is an example of kind of an ideal life, read it, see for yourself that the life worth living is only a life of courage and honour and truth. She was assassinated on December 28, 2007 in a country where she had come back from exile, back to get into polictics and elections, with denied security from the President.

This is an auto-biography to read! It's not hard-core politics, so even if you're not at all political, its a smooth read taking you into the lives of people, their powers and their effects.

18 comments:

I was deeply saddened and shocked by Ms.Bhutto's assassination. And her life story (including her father's and brothers') is a tragedy. But she will always be remembered for her heroic presence in a dangerous sect.

Too bad that people read 'Auto'biographies and say things like, "Her life is an example of kind of an ideal life". If you are still in school or college you might want to take up a course in journalism or world relations. It will teach you to check your sources before declaring someone to be a messiah.

As far as Bhutto is concerned, just a simple google check on her character should be sufficient. Look up news reports, read literature, read "Goodbye Shahzadi" and you'll know who she really was. One of the most corrust politician this country has ever seen, someone who didn't think twice before selling of nuclear secrets to North Korea.

Not really. That's the one which I think was the worst crime. Among the list of proved crimes, this stands out. Of the top of my head I can recall atleasst 3 more proved corruption charges. You can do your own research if you want more comprehensive data.

My point isn't Mrs Bhutto. It's against reading someone write about their own life and believing everything and not validating the claims by one's own research. That's all I wanted to point out. You can ofcourse feel free to ignore my view and stand by your methods to know about people. Cheers.

Every person has a good and a bad side to their personality. A completely good person would resemble what people refer to as God, while the completely bad would be Satan. Every other person you meet has a good side to them, what matters is which one dominates. Sure she must have been a good mother, perhaps even a good daughter, but would that be the pointer on which history will judge her? Was it her defining characteristic? Her goodness? And there is a very elementary mistake in your argument. Firstly,"Mebbe there was Corruption in her regime..as it happens with any politician.", isn't a very good argument to defend a person. Primarily because it wasn't "maybe", she has proven charges of extreme corruption, and secondarily, "any politician" is a generalization of the highest kind, the flaw with it being apparent.

It's not about 'some parts of her being nice', it's about which part affected the people whom she represented, which part dominated her personality. $10 million in a Citibank account in Dubai and then a $10 million bribe from a volatile North Korean govt as bribe to sell your nuclear secrets and create extreme de-stability in an already unsettled envelope of countries, by far out measure her 'goodness'.

I don't have anything personal against Benazir mate, it's just the gloom of seeing someone defend the wrong doings of another person by trying to sweep them under mis-constructed generalities which puts me off. But as they say, every man believes what suits him.

Firstly, the association of corruption with politicians and the inevitability in your voice regarding it is,put mildly, a disturbing thought. Have lived in the sub-continental parts of Asia before moving to the US,and drawing upon readings of other literature associated with the topic, comparing the notion of 'politician' among people from different places shows up the difference of thought among different people. In US, or France and Germany for that matter, for example, it would be a public outage if a charge of corruption were levied against a politician, while in contrast, it appears to be an accepted fact among the sub-continental people. I'll keep the conclusions to myself.

Secondly, I think I refered to Keshi as 'mate' in a manly manner a couple of times in my posts. Apologies about that. Didn't know you were a gal. Shall correct myself in the future.

Thirdly, to the blog writer, sorry for converting the comment section of your blog into a personal discussion. Unintended again!

Oh I'm happy (not happy as in happy for the corruption, just for broadening of the horizons on the topic) to see her in a different light, never mind the converion of comments to personal discussion, thats what its for! :)

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